1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exercise monitoring device, and more particularly to an exercise monitoring and recording device capable to display exercise expenditure in the form of graphic distribution pattern.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are variety of body building devices and exercisers developed for people who live busily in the modern commercial society and require appropriate exercises. For a person to accurately control a moderate amount of exercise and monitor personal physical condition, various types of body/motion signal sensing devices have been researched and developed.
Typically, the conventional body/motion signal sensing devices comprises a display unit for displaying the amount of exercise in digital value. Take for an example. Pedometer is a simple body/motion signal sensing device extensively used by exercisers. Pedometer is used to measure the accumulated number of paces of an exerciser at walking, jogging, or jumping, and the accumulated number of paces is displayed in digits on the display unit of the pedometer. Currently, there are a variety of pedometers available in the market, which possess different functions, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,371,945 and 5,164,967. The electronic pedometers are capable to calculate the distance a user walks, jogs or runs by electronically measuring the length of each stride taken by the user, and display the distance traveled on a digital display.
However, most of the pedometers are limited in functions. Those pedometers are only capable to display simple digital data which are limited in information and do not match the requirement of most exercisers. Hence, the exercisers are not able to know their conditions, records, and exercise expenditure. In other words, the digital data shown on the digital displays of the pedometers are not informative enough.
In most applications, data are expressed in digits and are clear to reflect the facts and changes. However, in some applications, graphical data would be more readable than digital data. Thus, it is desired to develop an exercise monitoring and recording device capable to show graphical records.